Talk:The World I Know/@comment-12319345-20140103221934/@comment-3575890-20140104033726
I agree with all but Belle and Adam. While I fully acknowledge that their relationship was problematic and not the most healthiest at first, I would not chock it up to Stockholme Syndrome. Stockholme Syndrome sufferers fall for their captors because they've been gradually socialized to believe they deserve the abuse they suffer at the hands of their captors. But Belle never felt an inkling of anything for Adam when he was a prick to her. She defied him at every turned and loathed his existence until he began to treat her with the respect she deserved. She did not fall in love with her captor. She fell in love with the man who didn't attempt to stop her from leaving him the first time she fled his castle despite that they had an agreement that she would stay with him in exchange for her father's freedom -- a verbal contract officiated on her own accord and terms -- and then risked his life to prevent her being mutilated by wolves. After that valiant show of selflessness, she chose to stay and it was only from that point on that she began to develop feelings for him. Had she wished to leave still, she could have. He had not followed her out there with the intent to forcibly drag her back against her will. He was worried about her, but he was also just as willing to let her go. As for bribing her with the library, I don't believe that was the case at all. Before he cared for her, he didn't make any effort whatsoever to earn her affections. He did not put on airs and resort to methods of persuasion. There was no sugarcoating of anything. He was just his usual assholish self who had not yet learned to love anyone but himself. That all changed after the altercation with the wolves. Seeing Belle in mortal peril awakened feelings within him he never knew he was capable of or could ever have for another person. i believe he genuinely fell in love with her the night she tended to his wounds. It wasn't just the bonding experience of it that unearthed tender feelings for her, but the fact that she had the opportunity to escape and chose not to take it; that she decided to stay on her own terms despite how much of an asshole he had been to her the entire time. Note how his demeanour changed almost instantaneously overnight after the incident. He realized he needed to change his ways in order to be deserving of her love. He was not entitled to it; he needed to earn it. By the time he showed her the library, he had nothing but genuine intentions. He was not trying to bribe her into staying; she didn't need the convincing. She could have left when she had the chance and chose not to. He gave her the library of her dreams because he knew it would make her deliriously happy; he knew her, having grown attentive to her every need and desire. But first and foremost, her happiness was his happiness in that he loved her with everything in him.